PZ's Podcast

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PZ's Podcast episodes

March 12, 2015 Episode 185 - One Toke Over The Line (Sweet Mary)
What think ye when I say that 95% of what you are doing
is futile and meaningless? Well, let's put it another way:
From the standpoint of the after-life, what you are doing is...
you fill in the blanks.
But you can still make it!
You've got to learn how to meditate, and learn how to throw a Crucifix.
Podcast 185 is dedicated to Mary C. Zahl.
25 min
March 09, 2015 Episode 184 - Hysteria
In life you can be trapped by forces that are bigger than you are. Especially in professional life. It's possible to "wander in" -- or rather, bumble in -- to a situation in which you get used by somebody else to accomplish a plan of theirs of which you yourself are (at the time) unaware.
Here is my homage to Jimmy Sangster movies. In particular, behold Hysteria, a masterpiece of intrigue from 1965. Watch out! And take comfort, too
25 min
March 07, 2015 Episode 183 - Dr. Syn
Oh, to encounter an integrated minister!
We all want to be integrated -- to be ourselves in the pulpit
and also out of it.
But it's tricky to pull off.
Pharisaical elements in the church -- usually one or two individuals
in the parish, who are present -- unconsciously -- in order to hide out themselves in some way or another -- can't long abide a minister who
is himself or herself.
Most of your listeners love it.
But there are one or two who, well, have an allergy.
(They are the ones that can get you every time.)
But then along comes someone like 'Mr. Tryan' in George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life. He breaks the mold.
Or, somewhat spectacularly, Dr. Syn. Dr. Syn, who was known in the movies as 'Dr. Bliss', is just about the most thoroughly integrated Anglican clergyman in history. Could any of us be like him? Dr. Syn is a brilliant swordsman, an agile swinger from church chandeliers, a powerful preacher,
a rousing music leader, a crafty smuggler, a loving father, a wily impeder of the taxation and revenue service, and a kindly pastor to his entire flock. He is Robin Hood and 'Fletcher of Madeley' rolled into one. Dr. Syn makes one wish to keep on going.
Hope you like him. Maybe we can do a breakout in his honor at Mockingbird. But everyone who comes will need to bring preaching bands, and
a phosphorescent mask.
23 min
January 26, 2015 Episode 181 - Dualism Clinic with James Bernard
Come to find out, dualism has a limited but necessary role in resolving the human dilemma, i.e., in living. The percentage is maybe 20% most of the time, but it's possibly 90% some of the time. The English composer James Bernard is Exhibit A here, and a most brilliant exhibit his work has become.
23 min
November 22, 2014 Episode 180 - Metropolitan Life
]This is the tableau of a childhood memory,
a memory that came literally to life recently.
I entered a dream, but then the dream was real.
A little like the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but in reverse.
With help from Orpheus and, by way of backdraft,
the Warrens.
23 min
November 15, 2014 Episode 179 - Ere the Winter Storms
Why are so many unchanged, I mean fundamentally unchanged,
by the red lights of life? What accounts for persons' resistance
to the lessons of catastrophe? This week Robert W. Anderson, not 'Sister Mary Ignatius', explains it all to us.
25 min
October 30, 2014 Episode 178 - Without Which Not
Things recently got so bad somewhere that it looks like all hope is gone.
The thing "imploded", like 'Susan' in The Buckinghams' otherwise cheery pop single.
Poor Susan!
Is there still hope? PZ thinks there is. But it comes from over the border!
And from the year 1917.
28 min
October 08, 2014 Episode 177 - Whipped Cream
Big explosions in Church!
Like at the beginning of "Cloverfield".
What do they mean?
Is there any hope in the aftermath?
Well, would I be recording this if I didn't think so,
from Lake Tahoe, as it turns out?
With help from Herb Alpert.
And Jane Austen.
This podcast is dedicated to Melina and Jacob Smith.
29 min
August 27, 2014 Episode 176 - Everything Is Tuesday
August Coda.
Labor Day Coda.
General Johnson Coda.
Mergers Not Acquisitions Coda.
21 min
August 26, 2014 Episode 175 - Does the Name Grimsby Do Anything to You?
An August summation,
from one explorer to hopefully others.
Rod Serling describes a unique case of one.
Then Armando Trovajoli puts into music the
secret of life. Yes, the secret of life.
29 min

About PZ's Podcast

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From "Telstar" to "Vault of Horror," from Rattigan to Kerouac, from the Village of Bray to the Village of Midwich, help PZ link old ancient news and pop culture. I think I can see him, "Crawling from…